The present disclosure relates generally to vehicle structures, and more particularly to a reinforcement for a vehicle structure.
A chassis rail is traditionally made up of two top hat section parts welded together. The two top hat section parts may be stamped. When the reinforcement tube is installed, the reinforcement tube is fitted inside the chassis rail. The chassis rail typically implements a box section configuration. The reinforcement tube is implemented within the box section configuration (or the like) to stop the bolt from crushing the vehicle body structure or chassis rail box section (as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) as the bolt is tightened. Reinforcement tubes are commonly used through a box section and can be seen in various industries such as automotive, aircraft, furniture and civil engineering.
In the automotive sector, a reinforcement tube is fitted into a chassis rail using a welding process. The process typically requires first, providing a first half of the rail. With reference to FIG. 1, a reinforcement tube 114 is then positioned in the first half of the rail and welded into place. Welding the reinforcement tube into the rail may be a time consuming process. The second half of the rail is then welded onto the first half of the rail thereby completely enclosing the reinforcement tube within the rail. The configuration of the reinforcement tube within the rail makes it difficult to determine if the tube is correctly located once the body structure is assembled.
Referring now to FIG. 2, the reinforcement tube of the prior art is not visible from the exterior of the rail after the rail is assembled. In the event that a reinforcement tube is missing from a chassis rail, the entire chassis rail or associated vehicle structure may need to be scrapped given the difficulty of repairing and/or inserting the reinforcement tube after the first half and the second half of the chassis rails are welded together.